As used herein, the words “resource” and/or “entity” will be used to mean non-human, physical assets that can be controlled by a “managing-entity.” A simple, non-limiting example is a company that manages its desktop computers. In this example, the managing-entity is the company (acting through its employees, contractors, agents and/or software), and the “entities” (or “resources”) are the desktop computers. Resources are sometimes referred to as uniquely defined entity by an attribute or a combined group of attributes. It is understood that internal components (sometimes bearing separate identities of their own) may be added and/or removed from these desktop computers during the life of each respective desktop computer. It is known that machine data sets regarding an entity are often created during the lifetime of the entity, and these data sets are herein referred to as “records.” It is further known that multiple, different records may exist with respect to a single entity. It is further known that sometimes there are attempts to understand which records relate to which entities, and this process of matching records to entities and/or to each other will herein be referred to as “reconciliation.”
Inventory and management tools are some of the tools that automatically discover the physical and application infrastructure in an enterprise. These tools collect information about specific attributes that relate to a specific domain. Small companies to large corporations possess a heterogeneous computer enterprise that is constantly being updated and reconfigured. Enterprise computer systems are complex enterprises that serve mission critical business functions. The set of hardware and software items that constitute a computer enterprise are an interdependent integrated platform which serves a multi-functioned, multi-processed, and multi-structured organization.
The Information Technology (IT) staff is responsible for the inventory configuration and management of IT equipment. Without proper software to help maintain a database the enterprise can quickly become outdated and unmanageable. Without knowing the state of the hardware and the software policy decisions can be costly. Inventory configuration management can answer questions like: (i) what equipment and resources are currently owned; (ii) how can this inventory information be gathered and updated automatically, without direct hands-on examination of each device, and without hand-documenting with a pen and notepad; (iii) what needs upgrade or repair; (iv) what can the IT staff consolidate to reduce complexity or reduce energy use; or (v) would resources be better reused somewhere else?